Percy Jackson: Sea of monsters Review

“Percy Jackson:
sea of monsters” is the second installment in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians
series based on the young adult series of books of the same name. The first
movie “Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief “came out during 2010 and did lukewarm
business for Fox. So, getting a sequel was never given even though there was a
dedicated fan base for the books. But, Fox’s need for a successful franchise
gave Percy and company a second chance. Did it pay off? Well… It’s better than
the first movie.

The books
and the movies follow Percy Jackson and company who are half human, half Olympian
god teenagers go on adventures or “quests” in each installment. In “Percy Jackson:
sea of monsters”, Percy Jackson and company venture to the Bermuda triangle or “sea
of monsters” to find the Golden Fleece although there are no explanation why a
mystical Greek item ended up in the Americas is never explained. But in this
world, the entrance to Olympus is on top of the Empire state building. So, if
you cannot give this a pass, you’ll have a hard time with this movie.

The first Percy
Jackson movie had 3 major problems.

First, it
was a blatant copy of the Harry Potter movie series. Part of this comes from
the source material. In the young adult literature medium, blatant rip-offs of
common as Star wars clones. It is evident that the Percy Jackson books were
riding the coat tails of the Potter phenomena. It had Percy Jackson and friends
triad standing in the Harry, Ron, and Hermione triad playing almost the same
rolls. To differentiate itself, the books targeted a much younger audience than
the Harry Potter series and replaced the Victorian/British elements with Greek mythology.
However, this was not enough to erase the taste of being derivative especially
in the movie. The movie watered down the little uniqueness that the source
material had and the only thing left was the Harry Potter clone.

“Percy Jackson:
sea of monsters” cannot avoid being derivative but does bring something new to
the equation. For a considerable part of the movie, the whole Greek mythology
things is put more towards the back and the movie feels more like a junior Bond
movie. You have a Bond villain on a posh yacht with his Hench men delivering monologues and leaving the hero open to escape and ruin his plans. Percy Jackson is getting into hand to hand
combat, shooting guns, and using gadgets to get out of tough situations. While
this itself is not new, it’s new to the series and actually works compared to
the Greek mythology elements which does not.

Second, the
first Percy Jackson movie copied the wrong Harry Potter movie. The Percy Jackson
book series targeted a much younger audience and stayed with that audience throughout
its run compared to the Harry Potter series which tried to grow with its audience.
If the book series copied the early Harry
Potter books, the first Percy Jackson movie copied the latter Harry Potter
movies. The characters were set older than their book counterparts and the
actors were cast much older with the triad being in their late 20s except for Logan
Lerman who was in his late teens. An older
audience means that they require more sophistication than a kid audience. The
problem is that the world of Percy Jackson is paper thin. The Greek mythology
is awkwardly fit into the book’s world and the scope of the adventures was very
narrow. As an adult reading the books, you cannot avoid the fact that, while
they have their own charms, the books are very juvenile. The Percy Jackson movie
did nothing to flesh out the world and actually did the opposite by simplifying
the world even more. Thus, the world is
not convincing enough on its own terms and the plot does not help. Percy Jackson who is kid with a very narrow
scoped perceptual world view is thrust into circumstances with global scope.
The problem is not with Percy Jackson’s perceptual world view as he is a kid. The
problem is not that he is thrust into circumstances with global scope. It
happens. The problem is that Percy Jackson and company are the only active
entities in these circumstances. The Gods are passive entities doing nothing.
As a 9 years old kids fantasy, this is ok. But, for a more mature audience, it
is just stupid.

This does
not change with “Percy Jackson: sea of monsters”. It is even worse since the
gods are almost absent through the whole movie. However, it does work with the
junior James Bond thing going on.

Finally, the
roles in the Percy Jackson movie were miscast. Logan
Lerman, while being a decent actor, does not have the screen presence to carry
a hero role. This could be said the ba also true with Daniel Radcliffe in the
Harry Potter movies. However, Daniel Radcliffe at least is interesting to see
on screen and worked well within the Harry, Ron, and Hermione triad. Harry
worked because of the triad. While Percy Jackson has his own triad, they did
not have chemistry. Brandon T. Jackson, as the comic relief, was just ok with
the other members and Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario had zero chemistry. Alexandra Daddario was not a great actor at
the time and it was unclear other than being the girl in the triad what her relationship
was with Percy Jackson. It did not help that there was more than 6 years difference
between Logan Lerman and the other characters and the other 2 had play characters
more than 10 years junior tot their actual ages.

Not much
has changed in “Percy Jackson: sea of monsters”. Logan Lerman and Alexandra
Daddario still have zero chemistry. It actually has gotten worse as Alexandra
Daddario who is 27 seems to be taller than Logan Lerman. In Hollywood, you
cannot have a male lead that is shorter than the female lead. So, “Percy Jackson:
sea of monsters” tried to pull off a Tom Cruise. It is evident that there were
tricks employed to make the two seem to be a similar height and Alexandra
Daddario is constantly slouching. One good thing with the casting in this movie
is bringing in Leven Rambin who is only 2 years older than Logan Lerman. The
two had a lot of chemistry and it was sad that she did not get much to do in
the movie.

Overall, “Percy
Jackson: sea of monsters” is a so so movie that it would be a bad choice
catching it on cable one night as it feels like a decent cable movie for a
youth oriented channel.